[A] The Lethality of Wordplay

[MoogerMint]

The pair stood to the side of the entrance, staring up at the height of the building in front of them. It was a long few minutes before either of them spoke, but out of irritation, Halo broke the silence. Taking a long drag of her cigarette, she exhaled a loud sigh of smoke to bring her companion out of his awe-inspired stupor, "A laboratory? Where exactly have you brought us, idjit?" She flicked the last of the rolled tobacco onto the sidewalk, burying it under the scuffle of her taloned foot.

"A laboratory," Card responded without a second thought. Twitching, he tried to dodge a swing from a fist that never came, instigating a roll of the eyes from Halo.

"No. Really. I never would have guessed it. Y'know what? I'm outta--" She was cut off with a quick tug on her wrist from the much-shorter male as he eagerly led her inside the compound, reminding her of the guy's surprising strength. Eyes and patience thinning, she snapped, "Tell me again how it was that you were able to drag me here?"

"Pickles."

"Pi-- what!?"

It wasn't until Halo wrenched her arm out of Card's grip before he gave her a straight answer. Stopping in their footsteps, he proceeded to elaborate, "I dunno how many times I had to tell you, so I just wanted to be sure you were actually listening this time." His eyes met Halo's irritation with a nonchalant air, giving way to further irritation. On the bright side? He didn't have to go into any more detail, considering it would only prove his point.

Grumbling, she decided to amend the question, "I'm the one that got a letter. Why are you insisting I go, and why are you coming along? This letter is mine, and I didn't want to come!"

Her answer was only coded as a broad smile, that same trademark smile she always had to deal with. Could he just use words!? No... no, that might be a bad idea; that's how she found herself wound up in this situation in the first place. Her long ears pinned back in frustrated rage, she growled through set teeth, "Fine, whatever. Let's just get this over with."  

[Dgcakes]

"Probably best that you did come after all. If you had not, you'd have had no say in the selection process at all." came a very smooth monotone from behind them as a pink haired woman calmly closed the door and headed inside towards the desk.

"Your name is what again?" she asked calmly, looking at the registrar for who was arriving that dya.  

[MoogerMint]

Halo pivoted around to face the woman as soon as the voice appeared, her eyes narrowing further once the words sank in. She hissed, her irritation displayed in the way her pinned ears twitched, "No say? Is that a threat?"

Card made a motion as if he were about to clear his throat, but the action fell silent. He jabbed at his taller accomplice with an elbow, in an attempt to get her to switch the object of her rage to himself instead. His first words were directed toward Halo, with perhaps a little too much confidence, "No say, that's right -- I would have dragged you here myself, wouldn't I?" His impish smile did little to cool her temper, but he couldn't help it. Sure, he knew what the pink-haired woman really meant with her statement, but he really couldn't help himself. After all, he wasn't really lying.

In reaction, he took a quick step to the side, another way he teased Halo. She was sometimes quick to provoke into violence, but the joke had long gotten old. Not only that, but they were in public; Halo wouldn't have been that stupid, and she growled something under her breath when she realized Card truly believed she would stoop so low. Such a child... However, she said she wanted to get this over with, and standing here in silence wasn't helping time move any faster. "Halo," she said simply, "Halo Khloros."

Card's smile belied his amusement, not expecting her to use a last name. The letter she had received only listed her preferred name, didn't it? She didn't prefer her last name, not in the slightest; would it even be listed? No matter; he just wanted in on it. Jabbing a thumb to his chest, he introduced, mimicking the name order Halo used, "And I'm Card Ferrum! I'm here under my own volition, but wanted to participate as well. Thought it might just be easier if I came along with her, if that's all right." Sounded like it would be rather fun, after all.  

[Dgcakes]

Kayen seemed unphased by the outburst or twitching, "No, I don't need to threaten you. But had you not come in person, I'd have brought a child to you." she stated calmly and ignored the rest of the exchange as she picked up some paperwork from the desk.

"Are you helping her select a child or selecting one of your own as well, Card Ferrum? Because you are on the list of possible candidates as well." she said this as if every place had a list of people who would be "appropriate" guardians for some of the children at the labs. "What gender preferences do you have?"  

[MoogerMint]

If nothing else, Halo was certainly surprised, more so than she was irritated. Was this woman serious? Was she out of her mind? She must have been, for who else would leave a child with her? Blimey, she had a hard enough time getting along with the guy that stood next to her, let alone anyone else! She continued the frown, but her silence decided to do the speaking.

As it was, Card continued to bask in his amusement. He had a pretty good idea of what must have been going on through Halo's head, but likewise, he knew what this could mean for her. Yes, it was true, the only person she felt she got along with was herself. However, it wasn't as if she would do anything to purposefully hurt a kid, and no matter how much she might complain about it, she'd probably be incredibly decent at taking care of a kid. Might even loosen up a little, become easier to be around, he mused wistfully, figuring it was but a wish but one that he wasn't going to toss out of his mind.

He blinked at Kayen's question, taken aback at the statement. He thought it over out loud, "Oh really? That's pretty cool! Yes, I would love to take one off your hands." Well, that would take a lot less explaining on his part, though he was curious as to how they selected their "candidates." He had to think on the next question a little, but shrugged after a bit. Briefly glancing at Halo, his smirk made a reappearance as an idea struck him. "I suppose if you have a kid that may be high-maintenance, temperament-wise, I could take them on," he replied, trying to indicate with an incognito tip of his head toward Halo herself. He could handle her, so he could probably handle a problem child without too much difficulty.

Halo had to hold back a derogatory snort to his reply, but shook her head toward Kayen as a reply to keep the conversation moving. "Not female," she replied simply.  

[Dgcakes]

Kayen thought for a time. "We have several male and non-gendered children available at present. Please come this way." once again the woman was striding down a hallway and paying little mind to the two - they'd follow her. Otherwise they'd end up dealing with Apoxi or Jillian - and that'd probably irritate Halo more.

She indicated the windows on each of these different doors they passed, "You may look in at any children and enter to say hello if you wish, but do not promise anything you are not binding yourself to. If you see several children and imply you are taking them home, you will be taking all of them home."  

[MoogerMint]

Card offered a sharp nod and a grin in reply to Kayen's explanation, almost as though he were answering with a verbal, "Sounds good!" He was quick to follow the woman down the halls despite his area of interest not being the first stop. Ah, who was he kidding? This whole place and situation was interesting to him! He paused briefly in stride to turn his head to Halo, giving a small wave to pull her along with them before continuing himself.

She snorted again, Card's eagerness being replaced by irritation in her own mind. This is so messed up... she grumbled to herself before reluctantly trailing behind. Halo didn't honestly have much ground to stand on when it came to the lab itself and what it stood for, but she didn't appreciate the idea of having to uproot her living conditions to conform to the whim of a place that she hadn't seen or heard about before! Not that her lifestyle was truly rooted in place; it had only been about two months since she had moved into her current home, though the move had merely been over the span of a few blocks across town.

Card gingerly peered in to see the children one-by-one as they passed, jarring a roll of the eyes from his counterpart. She was concerned that he may be making too much of a show of acting like a child himself when the taller female knew he was fully capable of acting his age, but this thought was carefully masked. He shook his head at a couple of the ones he saw, frowning at others as he pondered. Halo glanced over a portion of these as well, and seemed to have almost come to a conclusion before her train of thought was interrupted. "Oh hey, Halo, c'mere for a moment," Card batted at the air before pointing toward the door he was in front of.

The child within the room didn't seem to notice that the labs had company today -- perhaps due to a side-effect of the constant nature of the visits. Starry-haired and small, there was one aspect of the child that really stood out to Halo, and it wasn't one she was particularly keen on. Eyes narrowing, she stole a sideways glance to the man next to her, "Card... it's pink."

"Yeah? So? Seems mild-mannered enough to me--"

"Pink, Card. Are you sure this one ain't a girl?"

Card tsked at her retort, shaking his head, "Stereotyping now, are we? Don't you know we don't give kids grief like that?" He had been wearing a smirk during the exposition, but his expression quickly turned into a frown as soon as the last word was out of his mouth. He wasn't happy about the woman developing a first impression off of outer appearance, and he knew she didn't have any right to do so.

His steady gaze on her made the cold woman mildly fidget in place. After a few seconds, her eyes played an encore performance of their previous somersault. Guilt-tripping b*****d, she growled, "Alright already, I'll give it a shot!"

Once she was out of earshot, Card slowly made his way back to Kayen. He watched her storm off with mild amusement before a thought crossed the air, "Say, that one wouldn't happen to be a trouble-maker at all, would it?" Nothing like goading her into meeting a kid only to have it backfire, after all.  

[Dgcakes]

Kayen glanced at the door Halo had stormed towards. "Unicorn, genie, number 64? Not at all." The words were completely offhand and not even thought about. "It is very well behaved, a bit skittish, but decent."  

[MoogerMint]

While still concerned over at least the child's well-being after an encounter with the ill-tempered Halo, Kayen's words did prove to weigh in an immense relief. It wasn't every day that he was able to take a jaunt into town with the woman, but with the current living arrangements, this was sure to change in the future. At least she wasn't too exceptionally rusty with conversing with the outside world... just mostly. Regardless, he grinned, eager to know the results, "Good! Here's to hoping this goes without a hitch, then!"

Halo floundered a bit when she finally passed the threshold of the room. While she was determined to prove Card wrong in his assumptions of... well, her assumptions, she also had failed to plan out a scenario to initiate conversation. She wasn't the best at normal chatter with clients, how was she suppose to talk to an individual who lacked even further knowledge? Mildly pacing in place, she contemplated this minor road block.

The child seemed more nervous about the encounter than Halo outwardly appeared, though, and froze in place. Crouched down with its back to the door, the toddler pulled its arms to its torso from the crayons being used for illustration about printer paper, as though out of silent respect. However, it didn't sound like... she was really doing anything. Slowly, very slowly, the evening-hued toddler turned to catch a glimpse of this individual, in case they were waiting for the action, but she seemed too distracted to notice. She didn't know how procedure tended to go around here, did she? That somehow made the young child less nervous, "H-Hello. You, um... adopting?" The woman's eyes narrowed reflexively at the one who spoke of such things she felt forced into, causing the androgynous child to jump and scuff fingers along the floor, "Sorry, I didn't mean..." How was one suppose to explain they weren't expecting to be the one when under such unfamiliar pressure?

She sighed, waving it off a bit harshly. After a moment, she elaborated, "Well, I guess so. That's what I'm suppose to do." Halo was unamused, but decided to just... go with whatever came to mind, as long as it could be considered child-appropriate, "So what are you coloring?"

The kid jumped and seemed to be trying to hide the paper behind its back. It took a moment, but blushed fingers grabbed a hold of the page and meekly showed it, "It's Jillian."

She blinked at the smattering of color on the page, not sure how to make heads or tails of the picture. "Got a little carried away with the colors, did you?" she remarked after a moment of confused study.

The toddler grinned, "No, she's a Ne... Neph..." Ah, but that was a much too difficult word for such a young child to repeat, let alone remember. After a brief consideration for an adequate patch, the star-marked child reiterated, "She's got rainbows in her hair!" So did that mean that they had gotten her picture spot-on?

Meanwhile, even though Card was not getting impatient, his antsiness belied his anxiety. Not only did he want to know the results, but he wanted to make sure nobody was getting any emotional trauma out of the exchange. In fact, after a while had passed, he was about to ask Kayen if they should go in and intercept, only to have Halo emerge in the doorway, right on cue. Card nearly stumbled, "Hey, you don't look any worse for wear!" Although eager, he wasn't about to hijack official proceedings, so refrained from asking how it went. She still looked irritated, but considering it wasn't anything unusual, Card deduced it couldn't have gone very badly...  

[Dgcakes]

About that point, a tall female with long blonde hair that featured very prominent rainbow streaks and seemed to be trailing clouds, approached in the hallway. She was carrying a seemingly huge fluffball and had a soft, tanned face with scales about her cheeks and eyes - rainbow scales to be precise. Her bright blue eyes glittered as she looked up at them, bouncing the fluffball lightly as she fed it a cookie.

"Oh! Hello!" she greeted warmly, turning and smiling brightly at the pink child. "Hey little one, found a home?" she asked, her dragon's tail flicking a bit on the ground behind her as she reached a hand forward to lightly tap his nose in a playful gesture. "I hope you'll take great care of this little sweetheart." the girl said warmly to Halo before turning to smile at Kayen and Card. "Were you about to show them somewheres mother?"

"Yes." Kayen stated blankly. "Down to the high maintenance wing. This one says he'll take something that requires more effort." she explained.

"Ooooooh! I know just one of the kids if you want something high maintenance but worth the effort. Come this way!" she darted down towards that wing, pulling card along, and eliciting trills from the fuzzy thing with her sudden speed.  

[MoogerMint]

The uni-genie toddler peered out of the doorway behind Halo, curious as to what the general consensus was going to be after the encounter. It had seemed like any other conversation, but the tall... lady?... didn't seem like she was too thrilled. The toddler was almost certain that it was going to be staying behind these doors for a while yet due to the reaction, not knowing Halo's default demeanor, and seemed to huddle behind her shadow at the thought. She heaved a heavy sigh, thinking it over real quick. She wasn't going to be able to leave this place on her own, and this particular child was remarkably well-behaved for a toddler of such mischievous-granting lineage... "Alright already," she hissed, though it sounded more deflated. Adding quietly, she grumbled, "You win this time..." The golden-eyed child blinked, unsure what to make of the surrender; was the toddler wrong in assumption? Inching forward, golden hooves tempted fate by pulling the rest of the toddler's body outside the confines of the room, watching Kayen for any indication that it should be headed back into the room.

However, it didn't seem as though that were the case. The toddler perked at Jillian's entrance, grinning broadly at her timing on the matter. At the poking of the young child's nose, a giggle emerged from the cheery expression, "Jillian!" So it really was true, the toddler was going to be leaving the place it had grown to consider home. There was a bit of uneasiness on the idea, shown mostly through the eyes than the posture, "I can come back an' visit, right? We can play again?" While it always seemed temporary, there wasn't a lack of camaraderie here...

"Woah," Halo sputtered under a breath; her hair really was rainbows! And here she was thinking the toddler just had a runaway imagination. She grunted in reply to the girl's query, an off-handed affirmative; she wasn't going to neglect something so helpless... even if she'd prefer not having to deal with it at all. Despite all the complaints she may have lodged about the whole ordeal, Halo also knew the value of responsibility.

Card wasn't expecting the quick toting that Jillian exhibited, but really wasn't expecting to run into anyone so cheerful either. It was a surprise, but at least it was a pleasant one; it took him a moment to brandish a grin again. "Well you've got my attention!" he snickered as he began moving to keep up with her pace. Halo rolled her eyes and moseyed along at a much slower pace, making sure the star-marked child was keeping up.  

[Dgcakes]

"Of course we can, little one! We have to give you checkups sometimes!" she giggled, picking up the toddler to snuggle a bit before she'd gone dashing off with Card.

Down the halls and round the bends to a set of more heavily enforced doors and small paddock like areas they went till the group arrived at a room with a very energetic looking little child who looked something like a fluffy, many winged chipmunk of sorts.

"This little cutie is part Jabberwocky. He's got a couple of other donors in there but that's one of his main ones. Do you know how hard it is to find DNA from a creature considered to be almost exclusively imaginary even to imaginary folk? Anyway he's a little pain in the butt but he's a good kid and you'll have fun with him!"